Eating Kosher Food Next to Someone Eating Non-Kosher Food

I am eating my kosher pizza in my office, and my business partner, who is not Jewish, is eating his non-kosher pizza right across from me. Do I need a heker, a physical reminder, to ensure that I don’t take some of his food?

No. The prohibition of having two foods on the table only applies to two kosher foods. If the other food is non-kosher, Chazal were not concerned that a person might absentmindedly take from the other person’s food (Shach YD 88:2; see also Badei Hashulchan, biurim, s.v. assur le’haolos).

The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.